Saturday, November 02, 2013

Quick notes: Solar resurgence, Fail safe systems...

  • Fukushima reignites solar industry: In the wake of Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan installed solar panels at such a furious rate that the small nation is quickly becoming the largest solar market in the world.


  • Brazil thinks it’s being colonized by China, and wants its economy back: ‘Wait a minute, we are running a huge trade deficit with China. They are investing $20 billion and grabbing up all our resources. Are we a colony?’ The friction is building.


  • Vehicle testing confirms fatal flaws in Toyota design:
    • Software bugs that specifically can cause memory corruption
    • Unmaintainable code complexity in Toyota's software
    • A multifunction kitchen-sink Task X designed to execute everything from throttle control to cruise control and many of the fail-safes
    • That all Task X functions, including fail-safes, are designed to run on the main CPU in the Camry's electronic control module
    • That the brake override that is supposed to save the day when there is an unintended acceleration is also in Task X
    • The use of an operating system in which there is no protection against hardware or software faults




  • Jiye Sindh: The Sindh Story
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